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How to Read Food Labels

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  • Introduction

    • Fats, carbohydrates, calories, protein, vitamins... How much should you eat? What does it all mean?
    • The world of food labels can be a confusing and perplexing one, with a wide host of numbers, nutrients, and ingredients to understand and keep track of. Putting it all together isn't very hard, though, once you know what to look for and how to add it all up. And, lucky for you, the food manufacturers (with a little nudging from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) make it easy to figure out what amounts to a hill of beans—or whatever else you're eating. Knowing how to read food labels means you'll understand exactly what it is that goes into your food and how much of everything—good and bad—you're eating.

  • Part 1: Serving Size and Servings

    • Just as every good day starts with a good breakfast, every food label starts with one basic fact about the product—namely, how much is there?
    1. The serving size and number of servings gives you an idea of how much food is present in the package.
    2. It can be expressed in weight (such as ounces or pounds), volume (such as fluid ounces or cups for beverages), or an individual unit (such as a number of chips or cookies).
    3. Keep in mind that the serving size may or may not be what you consider a "serving."
      • A single can of soup, for instance, may contain two "servings" of soup (even though you'll likely eat the whole can), while a can of soda contains just one serving—the entire can.
      • Even if two cookies is a "serving," will you really stop at just two?

  • Part 2: Calories

    • First up are the calories. Every pound you gain (or lose) consists of 3,500 calories.
    1. A typical adult needs between about 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day, but this can vary based on gender, age, weight, activity level, and other factors.
    2. Use a calorie calculator to get a rough idea of your daily caloric needs.
    3. Next to calories is calories from fat, a measure of how many of the calories in the food come from fat.
    4. It is recommended that no more than 30% of your calories come from fat. Thus, if you have a 2,500-calorie-a-day diet, no more than 750 of your calories should come from fat.

  • Part 3: Non-Vitamin Nutrients

    • Next up are the non-vitamin nutrients, expressed in grams (g), milligrams (mg), and as a percentage of the daily value, or reference daily intake, you should be consuming for each nutrient. These numbers are generally based on a 2,000-calorie daily diet. If you have higher or lower caloric needs, adjust the daily value percentages as well.

  • Fat, Cholesterol, and Sodium

    • Though they are a required part of your diet, many people consume too much of each of these nutrients. If the percentage of the daily value for is over 20%, your food is probably too high in fat, cholesterol, or sodiumhttp://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/aha/aha_nutrlabe_crs.htm
    1. The Total Fat listing gives you an overview of how much fat is present in each serving. While some fat is necessary in every diet, too much fat can contribute to obesity and obesity-related health problems.http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/skinny-fat-good-fats-bad-fats
    2. Fat is also broken down into a number of different kinds of fat:
      1. Saturated Fats and Trans Fats (also known as hydrogenated fats) are known as the "bad fats". http://www.badfatsbrothers.com/BFB.html They're found most often in animal products (such as meat and dairy products) and packaged foods. These are the most dangerous types of fats and should be consumed as little as possible.http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/skinny-fat-good-fats-bad-fats?page=3
      2. Though not required, many labels list Polyunsaturated Fats and Monounsaturated Fats as well.http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/hgic4056.htm These are known as the "good fats".http://www.webmd.com/solutions/healthy-heart/AHA/good-bad-fat They can help lower cholesterol and are found in nuts, seafood, and most vegetable oils.http://www.webmd.com/solutions/healthy-heart/AHA/good-bad-fat
    3. As mentioned previously, only about 30% of your calories should come from fat.
    4. In general, when eating fatty foods, try to maximize the intake of "good fats" and minimize the intake of "bad fats." http://www.webmd.com/solutions/healthy-heart/AHA/good-bad-fat
    5. Next up is Cholesterol, listed both in mg and as the % Daily Value.
    6. As with fat, you want to minimize the amount of cholesterol in your diet, as too much cholesterol can lead to coronary problems (such as heart attack) or strokes.http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1502
    7. You want to avoid having more than about 300 mg of cholesterol daily.http://www.drugs.com/cg/food-label-reading.html As way of comparison, a typical quarter-pound, 80% lean/20% fat hamburger has about 80 mg of cholesterol (but that's without the cheese!).
    8. Sodium comes next on the label, in mg and as the % Daily Value. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4708
    9. Prepackaged and prepared foods typically contain a high amount of sodium.
    10. Your daily sodium intake should not exceed 2,400 mg. Too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure and other health problems.http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sodium/NU00284
      • If you have high blood pressure, talk to your doctor to see if you should be eating a low-salt diet.
    11. In general, try to limit your intake of all these "bad" nutrients to about 25% per meal. That fills up 75% of your daily quota, giving you some wiggle room for snacks.

  • Carbohydrates (Including Fiber), Protein, and More

    • These nutrients are very important, especially fiber.
    1. Next, we come to Potassium, a healthy component of anyone's diet, expressed both in mg and as the % Daily Value.
      • Food manufacturers are not required to list potassium content, so it doesn't appear on all food labels.
    2. Total Carbohydrates is next up, divided into two components: Dietary Fiber and Sugars.
    3. Dietary fiber is a necessary part of any healthy diet, with a number of proven benefits, from lowering cholesterol to preventing constipation, along with other, less certain benefits, such as potentially reducing your chance of getting cancer or diabetes.[1]
    4. Most people don't get enough fiber in their diets (at least 20-35 grams a day), so pay attention to the numbers listed!
    5. Some food labels may also list the amounts of soluble vs. insoluble fiber. Both are beneficial, so don't worry too much about which fiber(s) is present.
    6. Sugars are next on the label. Though there is no recommended daily value for sugars, you should eat no more than 50 grams of extra sugar a day (based on a 2,000 calorie diet).[2] That's sugar that's added to foods, not sugar that's naturally present.
    7. Finally, we come to protein, expressed in grams, an essential building block for muscles.
    8. While protein is generally good for you in any quantity, it's suggested a person consumes about 1.75 g of protein per pound of body weight.
      • You can find a protein calculator here, to help you figure out how much you should be eating.

  • Part 4: Vitamins and Minerals

    • On your label each vitamin or mineral present in the food is listed as a percentage of the recommended daily value per serving. Though many labels will include more information, the only requirements are to list the amounts of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, and iron.
    1. If a food contains 6% of your daily value of iron per serving and you consume four servings, you will get 24% (6 x 4) of your recommended daily iron from that food.
    2. Vitamins are classified by letters (such as A, C, and E) and sometimes also numbers (such as B6 and B12).
    3. Different foods contain different vitamins and have different purposes. Vitamin A, for instance, is found in fruits and vegetables and helps keep eyes and skin healthy.[1] Vitamin D is found mostly in vitamin-fortified foods (like some cereals) and helps regulate and maintain healthy teeth and bones.[2]
    4. Dietary minerals include such elements as iron, calcium, and zinc.
    5. Minerals are required for the body to perform and regulate essential cell functions.
    6. The actual amounts of each mineral required are very small—usually just a fraction of a gram per day.

  • Part 5: What You Should Eat

    • Under the percentages of vitamins and minerals, you'll sometimes find a chart detailing approximately how much of each fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, and carbohydrates (including fiber) a person should eat in a day.
    1. This information is usually split up into 2,000- and 2,500-calorie columns.
    2. Use this chart in conjunction with the percentage values on the rest of the label to get an idea of how much of each of those nutrients you should eat.

  • Part 6: High-Fiber, Low-Fat, and Sugar-Free

    • Many foods boast that they are "high in" or "a good source of" some nutrient. But what does that really mean?

    1. For most nutrients, high in means that the food contains 20% or more of the percentage of the recommended daily value of that nutrient.
    2. A good source of means that the food contains 10% to 19% of that nutrient per serving.
    3. Foods high in fiber contain at least 5g of fiber per serving.
    4. Foods that are a good source of fiber contain 2.5 to 5g of fiber per serving.
    5. For a food to be fat-free, it must contain 0.5g or less of fat per serving. Low-fat foods have 3g or less fat per serving.
    6. For a food to be low in saturated fat, it must have 1g or less of saturated fat per serving and less than 15% of its calories can come from saturated fat.
    7. A food with no cholesterol has less than 2mg of cholesterol per serving, while low cholesterol equates to 20mg or less per serving.
    8. Low-sodium foods have less than 140mg of sodium per serving, very low sodium foods have 35mg or less, and sodium-free foods have 5mg or less.
    9. Sugar-free foods have less than 0.5g of sugar per serving.
    10. No calories means that the food has 5 calories or less per serving, while a food that's low in calories has 40 calories or less per serving.
    11. Typically, any food that has reduced sugar, fat, cholesterol, etc., has 25% less of that nutrient than other, similar foods.
    12. Note that all of these are "per serving"—if you eat 10 servings of a "low-calorie" (40 calories) food, you're still eating 400 calories!

  • Part 7: The Lowdown on Ingredients

    1. Ingredients are listed by weight, with the ingredient making up most of the food's weight first, followed by the second most, third most, etc.
    2. For example, if you're trying to cut back on sodium, you should probably avoid foods where salt is the first or second ingredient.
    3. Names for sugars can get pretty creative, so if you're trying to limit your sugar intake, make sure you know how to identify them in ingredient lists.
    4. If you have allergies (such as for nuts, dairy products, etc.), scan the ingredient list to make sure none of the allergens are contained in the food.

  • Part 8: Finding More Information

    • The food label isn't the only place you can find nutritional information. After all, a menu at a restaurant doesn't typically include a food label. So, how can you find out what goes into that salad or Big Mac?
    1. Most chain restaurants provide nutritional information online. (Here's McDonald's.)
    2. Some restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants, post their menu's nutritional information in the restaurant itself, typically near the cash registers.
    3. If the restaurant doesn't post its nutritional info, either at the establishment or online, you can typically find it on nutrition sites on the Internet. Here's the nutritional information for the TGI Friday's menu.
    4. If you don't have the food right in front of you can also find generic information on all sorts of foods, from eggs to juice to branded frozen pizza on sites like Calorie King and The Daily Plate.

  • Conclusion

    • When you get right down to it, reading food labels is just a matter of watching your serving size, doing a little math, and (hopefully) avoiding too much of the bad stuff. With these tips, you should have no problem picking out the foods that are right for you and your family!

 


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